The mortality rate of drug overdoses in women in the US has risen sharply. This is clear from the data released this week in the Morbidity and Mortality Report of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention The drug overdose death rate hit middle-aged women particularly hard. Indeed, from 1

999 to 2017, the CDC found that drug overdose death rates among women aged 30 to 64 increased by a whopping 260 percent. In other words, the rate rose "from 6.7 deaths per 100,000 population (a total of 4,314 drug overdose deaths) in 1999 to 24,3 (18,110) in 2017," the health department said in the report.

FENTANYL NOW DEADLIEST DRUG IN AMERICA, CDH PHRASES WITH CDH PHRASES

During the same period, the CDC found that the number and death rates of antidepressants, benzodiazepines, cocaine, heroin and synthetic opioids (except methadone) also increased.

The number of deaths between the ages of 30 and 64 years between 1999 and 2017 also increased between 1999 and 2017. The largest increase was in women aged 55 to 64 years.

Overall, the overdose mortality rate increased by around 200 between 1999 and 2017. Among women between the ages of 35 and 39, and between 45 and 49 years of age, the percentage was between 30 and 34 and between 50 and 54 years old 350 percent. However, the CDC found that the rate for women aged 55-64 years has risen by almost 500 percent.

By comparison, in 1999 overdose death rates were highest in women aged 40 to 44 years (9.6 deaths) per 100,000 population), while rates among women aged 50 to 54 years were highest in 2017 (28.2), "the CDC said.

CLICK HERE TO RECEIVE THE FOX NEWS APP

Women who are disproportionately affected have found that the number of overdoses remains unacceptably high and that targeted efforts are needed to reduce the number of deaths in this developing epidemic.